Set Me Free
by Little Miss Enigma
Summary: Astrid's life wasn't as easy as everyone thought it was. How could they ever imagine what was racing through her mind every second of the day? She never thought that she'd be free of this madness... until something very unexpected happened, and it changed her forever. A Hiccstrid one-shot. Rated T for one small mention of violence and because I'm paranoid.


**Hello! It's me, again. This is a small one-shot I thought up when I started to ponder what would it be like to live in Astrid's shoes and this was born. Ta-da! A small Hiccstrid fluffiness for the shippers and a bit of angst thrown in as well.**

**I do not own How to Train Your Dragon; if I did, Astrid's backstory would be included. Enjoy and thanks for clicking!**

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She was at the top. There was no doubt about it.

She was marvelous at her close-range fighting and her aim was spot-on. When it was time for dragon training, she'd surely be the one to kill her first dragon in the ring. And when it came down to beauty- she was the one that they would fawn over. What more could she ask for?

Nothing, right?

That's what they'd assumed, but as most say; "It's lonely at the top."

They didn't know how true it was.

Astrid Hofferson had a life that most girls her age on Berk would dream for. Wonderful parents, a roof over her head- even when it wasn't on fire, "good" food to eat, and all of Berk knew her name and let it roll of their lips proudly.

But they never knew- and they never _would _know, just how she really felt. None... except one.

Astrid had no enemies... but herself. Her anger would broil up at the slightest err in her practice routine or the sentence she recently spoke to a friend. She'd let it all ball up inside and grow. She had no other way but to release her anger on the trees with the blade of her axe. But that still didn't help at all.

She couldn't turn to anyone because they wouldn't understand. They'd say, "Brush it off, it doesn't matter." But it _did _matter. It mattered to her more now than it ever did before.

She was in a game that with one mistake, you could be downcast for the rest of your mortal life, dwelling in your misery in the shadows all alone with no one to turn to. Wasn't that the way she already felt?

Every single thing she did she was being watched and observed. The younger ones looked up to her and the elders had standards for her so high that she probably couldn't reach even when she was standing on the tips of her toes. She only pretended to be confident and brave for her sanity's sake. Astrid had doubts as much as any other girl but if she confessed them... she'll never redeem her title back.

And as everything balled up inside of her with no one to confide to, she'd loose her patience quicker and act hastily more often. Soon, even Snotlout and the chief feared her and her short temper when it was lit.

And when Snotlout 'hit' on her, it only made matters for her worst. He thought of her as a prize to be one in the battle of masculinity. But she was no object and Astrid was highly capable of doing things no one had even seen her do... they probably wouldn't care anyhow.

No one understood her and not a soul she could share her thoughts to. In a village where everyone she knew adored her- she was all alone.

The loneliness ate at her heart like a hellion. She craved for someone to listen, for someone to care. But she was a caged bird inside of an invincible cage and no matter how hard she banged and ripped at the bars, there was no escape. Astrid needed to spread her wings and show someone, anyone, who she really was inside. She had thought that dragon training was that time that she would finally be restored of her once-owned happiness.

But that was when Hiccup came along.

First she just took him as a casualty, a pesk. Soon her annoyance grew for him and his lack of devotion made her skin broil to the point that she wanted to drive a stake through his chest and leave him to rot alone.

It was quite odd, really, when she'd suddenly find herself smiling at one of his snarky remarks. And the fluttery feeling in her chest when he'd glance at her. Quite odd indeed. But all that was smoldered when he began to excel in dragon training and take her place.

She couldn't piece together how someone so, so, so... Hiccup could ever become so good at something, that not even a week before he had no interest in. Astrid was loosing their respect quickly and she had no intention on giving up.

She made more and more frequent trips to the forest to train and scar the trees with her rage. A few times she had seen Hiccup slink off into the woods and she'd follow close behind, in high hopes that she'd discover what made him the 'dragon conquerer', But to no avail.

Then, then everything changed.

It was magical- no surreal. No matter how many times she looked back on that night she'd still find herself awestruck and at a loss for words. Nothing mattered up there in the clouds with Hiccup and Toothless. The weight she had bared for so long was cast down to the depth below her and the world was now off her shoulders.

And as she hugged Hiccup's middle, she felt free. Astrid felt at ease and was as light as the clouds she ran her fingers through.

She felt something she hadn't felt before.

Love, infinite, and complete.

He made her whole again. And whenever she'd feel the slightest bit of depressed, one look from those forest-green eyes and she was home. He didn't need for her to say it for he understood.

That night, Berk was changed.

That night, her whole world was changed.

That night, he set her free.


End file.
